A heritage celebrated

Monday

Oct 27, 2008 at 6:42 AMOct 27, 2008 at 6:43 AM

FROM STAFF REPORTS

In celebration of the Mormon pioneers' role in settling Southern California, a Heritage Festival was recently held at the Hesperia Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The two-day event drew several thousand people.

Featured were Cowboy poet Gene Jones and his wife Sandy, whose vignettes of song, prose and poetry depicted events in the lives of members of the Mormon Battalion, a 500-strong American military unit whose grueling 1,900 mile march from Iowa to San Diego opened a southern wagon route to California.

Another popular attraction was the re-creation of a portion of Fort San Bernardino, featuring a general store, a stockade, a livery stable, a one-room school house and other frontier structures. The city of San Bernardino was founded by 437 Mormon settlers in October 1851, and shortly thereafter - when threatened by a possible Indian uprising - the settlers built Fort San Bernardino, the largest log fort ever built in California history.

The family-centered festival featured many events and activities, including rides in a Mormon handcart, a rock climbing wall, the production of tin can lanterns and a pieeating contest, just to name a few. Making pioneer cloth dolls was one of the most popular activities. Hundreds of the crude dolls, typical of those played with by pioneer girls, were made and taken home by many delighted children. Musical groups strolled among the crowds, rendering vintage pioneer songs.

The festival concluded with a stage play re-enacting the founding of San Bernardino and the building of Fort San Bernardino by Mormon pioneers more than 150 years ago.

Laurie Lee, one of the organizers of the festival, said this celebration will always be one of the highlights of her life.

"It took much of my time and energy for 10 months," Lee said, "but watching the faces of the people - young and old alike - enjoying their time together and connecting with each other was a blessing far beyond my wildest expectations."